Thursday, January 28, 2010

London's Marks & Spencer will begin marketing a new vegetable this week called the Flower-sprout, a cross between the Brussels sprout and kale. Ten years in the making by plant breeders patiently crossing, growing, and testing the results of crossing those two vegetables, the "Flower-sprout" is certainly beautiful.

I don't know if this new vegetable and/or the seeds will be available to purchase here in the US, but if anyone reading this post is in the UK and has a chance to eat this new Brassica vegetable, please let us know how it tasted and how you used it!

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

What is even better than "one-stop shopping?" time-wise? How about "one-pot suppers"? I see the last dish I posted was similar, so I guess cooking like this is both a habit and an enjoyment of mine.

I love cleaning out odds and ends from my refrigerator and freezer along with being creative by combining different foods and tastes. I also love the ease of this type of dish on those evenings when my husband and I have been busy all day and come home too tired and too hungry to cook anything, particularly something that takes pre-planning, effort, and is time-consuming. I'll just bet that sound very very familiar to all of my readers. :-)

Thus this dish is not a recipe per se but an invitation for you to do something similar with whatever you find in your refrigerator.

Here is what I combined (all amounts are approximate):• 1 cup ratatouille (eggplant, tomatoes, peppers, onions - we froze this last fall)• 1 cup corn kernels (we froze this last fall)• 1 cup garbanzo beans (I buy these dried, cook them in bulk, and freeze so it is easy to make hummus or dishes such as this)• 1 cup tomato juice (we canned and froze juice last fall)• 1 cup fish broth (left over from poaching fish a few days earlier)• 1 cup rice (cooked, left-over from a previous meal - I also always cook rice in large quantity to freeze left-overs in 1 cup portions)• 1 cup kale (frozen, I crunched this in the freezer bag to make even smaller pieces, i.e., chopped very small, and then added it at the very end)• 1 teaspoon curry powder (I used sweet curry and then added a couple of shakes of hot spicy curry, too)

Mix all ingredients in a large pan, heat until just boiling, add kale, then serve up to eat. This is good enough for a whole meal but it could also be served as a side dish. I did serve it with a small piece of left-over smoked salmon and a blueberry corn-bread muffin. I was stuffed and satisfied, very satisfied. :-)

(Photo: One-Pot Supper with Kale - close up)

What's in your refrigerator to make into your own "fast food" tonight?

Friday, January 15, 2010

Here is a easy and delicious Friday night dinner (good for any night, too!). I don't usually buy mixes, but my mother is a fan of her local Costco and occasionally purchases something "fun" for us. Thus we have been the recipient of a large container of risotto containing dried tomato pieces and many additional herbs (bonus - no added salt or sodium!).

I made the risotto per directions, using vegetable broth already in my refrigerator (supplemented with additional water and a teaspoon or so of Better than Bouillon vegetable broth concentrate, also in my refrigerator), thawed and diced about 4 ounces of chicken meat (from a local farm Back Forty Acres) and also added several handfuls of frozen kale (crushed into small pieces while still frozen in the ziplock bag), and ~ 1-2 ounces of freshly grated parmesan cheese.

As a main dish, this amount made more than enough for 2 people and easily would have made a side dish of 4-6 servings.

Serve with a glass of iced tea or red wine, an additional vegetable serving, some fresh fruit or a fresh green salad and dressing.

Welcome to 365DaysofKale! by Diana Dyer, MS, RD

I'm a wife, mom, long-time organic gardener, new organic garlic farmer, Registered Dietitian, author of the book A Dietitian's Cancer Story, website CancerRD.com, and in between all that and more, I am a multiple time cancer survivor. My website focuses on nutrition information for cancer survivors. I began my "dianadyer" blog in June 2007 to share a wider scope of my thoughts about cancer survivorship, food, nutrition, gardening, recipes, our environment, and life.

I started this blog "365DaysofKale" in January 2009 in which I write about my passion for growing and eating kale. I hope that I can offer both information and inspiration to eat some kale or one of its healthy relatives every day of the year!

My Book

Personally autographed copies available at Nicola's Books in Ann Arbor, MI (call 734-662-0600 or visit nicolasbooks.com). Proceeds donated to research funded by The American Institute for Cancer Research (aicr.org, 1-800-843-8114).